coronavirus

The number of Iowans hospitalized across the state remains above 500. That's putting pressure on hospitals like UnityPoint's Methodist Hospital in downtown Des Moines.

Iowa school districts can keep mandating masks after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by parents and disability rights advocates. Judge Robert Pratt's ruling will halt enforcement of the law until the suit is resolved, a step he says is needed in order to protect school children from “irreparable harm."

New COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations remain high in Iowa, and one expert says those numbers could start to decline starting next week, but that decline likely won't last.

The president of the student government at the University of Northern Iowa has penned a resolution condemning school administrators for sanctioning a professor after he mandated students wear masks in his classroom. Professor Steve O'Kane has been relieved of his in-person teaching duties, a step which students say punishes them as well as him.

Students of an Iowa professor who was sanctioned for mandating masks in his classroom are defending their teacher. Students in Steve O'Kane's plant systematics class at the University of Northern Iowa penned a letter of support for him Tuesday that was forwarded to the Board of Regents and school administrators.

The Meskwaki Nation’s health clinic is receiving national recognition for its COVID-19 vaccination efforts as Iowa’s only federally recognized tribe has a significantly higher vaccination rate than the state.

Iowa State University is offering the opportunity for students who couldn’t graduate in-person because of the pandemic to walk across the stage this Saturday, Oct. 9.

New state numbers indicate there's high virus transmission across the state.

Mercy Iowa City announced Wednesday it is requiring all employees, contractors, students and volunteers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 20. A vaccine mandate announced earlier this summer had applied to other hospitals in the Mercy network but not to the Iowa City location.

A Mount Mercy University student has died of COVID-19 at the age of 21. This week the school announced the death of student Ashley Hudson, who was an aspiring kindergarten teacher.